An example of the first variety of the first U.S. gold $10 coin sold for $402,500 in Stack’s May 21-22 auction of the Minot collection, a sale that totaled about $5,939,000.

The 1795 $10, classified as Bass-Dannreuther 1 and Taraszka 1, with small eagle reverse and 13 leaves below the eagle, was graded MS-63 by Professional Coin Grading Service with Certified Acceptance Corp. sticker.

Stack’s catalogers traced the eagle’s pedigree to their May 1970 sale of the Gaston DiBello collection as well as a July 1983 auction.

The following comments were included in the catalog description of the coin: “The planchet quality is superb. … The hair details of Miss Liberty are above average, with most having minute details, and the stars are as nice as can be found on an eagle of this year. The eagle is very well struck. … This design is particularly attractive, was used only for a few years, and was inspired by an ancient onyx cameo. … To the preceding can be added superb eye appeal.”

Second-highest realization of the sale was $120,750, bid for a bronze cast of Hermon MacNeil’s approved obverse design for the 1916 Standing Liberty quarter design. It includes design elements that did not appear on the issued Standing Liberty quarter.

The cast has dimensions of about 6 by 5-5/16 inches, the design portion having a diameter of 5-1/8 inches. It weighs 358.64 grams.

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By Bank Note Reporter

In a June online auction and a July 11 public auction, Downies will be conducting sales of current Australian 2007-dated bank notes, the latest to be issued by the Reserve Bank of Australia. The auction follows the success of last year’s sale of 2006-dated bank notes.

In 2007, the Reserve Bank ceased its sales arrangement with the Royal Australian Mint in favor of selling first and last prefix bank notes via an annual auction. Consequently, Downies public auction of July 11 and Internet auction from June 18-25 July now provide the only opportunities for collectors and dealers to obtain uncirculated 2007 bank notes direct from the RBA.

The notes will consist of the first and last prefix bank notes dated 2007, e.g., $10 AA07 and GL07, respectively. A major attraction for collectors is that these will bear the new signature combination, Stevens/Henry.

At the July 11 sale these first and last prefixes will include special serial number combinations and complete sets of four notes – $5, $10, $20, $50 – in which the last four serial digits match. The special serials include radar and solid numbers. The bank note sets come as singles, consecutive pairs, trios, quartets, quintets and decades.

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By Ken Potter, Numismatic News

An Ohio trio, Richard Stachurski and his grandsons Zak and Joe El khamiri, has found what may be the first Missing Clad Layer error reported on a 2008-P John Quincy Adams Presidential dollar.

According to Stachurski, he and his grandsons routinely search Presidential dollars for errors with each of the boys assigned different tasks based on age. Four-year-old Joe is assigned the task of clearing away the wrappers from which the coins are quickly removed by 8-year-old Zak who passes them on to Stachurski, who does the actual searching.

Stachurski, said that the find was interesting in that the error was located in the third roll searched from a box containing 28 rolls obtained from a Charter One bank in Ohio. He said that the teller told him that somebody had already gone through the first 12 rolls in the box (which originally contained 40 rolls or 1,000 dollar coins) and advised him that there were no errors to be found.

Apparently the original searcher was looking for repetitive types such as plain edge or double edge lettered errors where several to many were generally found in boxes that contained them for the Washington and Adams dollars. The original searcher apparently gave up after searching a dozen rolls feeling there was nothing to be found

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